A Place for Us
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: One of the biggest predictions going into Episode IX is that the Force Bond between Rey and Ben will be discovered by the Resistance and their connection will try to be stopped. I wrote this with just such a premise in mind. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Misery

**Chapter 1: Misery**

It has only been a few weeks since the Resistance escaped Crait with their lives. A few weeks since Luke Skywalker's death.

And yet, in that time, Rey feels as though she has aged years - years that have passed agonizingly slowly.

It takes most of her effort just to get out of bed in the morning. She has her own quarters, a luxury that most other Resistance fighters cannot claim. If Rey were truly herself, she would feel grateful to be extended this courtesy, but instead, she just feels more and more out of place. Carrying the mantle of the Jedi, being the Last Jedi in the galaxy, has made her feel as exotic as an animal in a zoo.

Everyone stares at her. When she walks into a room, nearly all conversation ceases. Rey would not be surprised if somebody soon started the practice of bowing down at her feet. Even without that, the attention is unnerving. She does not talk to anybody, preferring instead to sit at a table in the mess hall by herself. Early in their journey into hiding, Finn makes the attempt to sit with her. He does not ask, but Rey can tell he knows something disturbing happened to her after she first left for Ahch-To. At least, that's how his thoughts seem to interpret it, when she probes just a little into his mind. No, what has befallen her is not so much disturbing as it is... debilitating. After a few days, even Finn draws away from her, once Rey makes it clear she will not - _cannot_ \- come out of her shell. Her depression.

There, that's the word. _Depression_. She is hopelessly, miserably depressed.

By all rights, she really shouldn't be. She is back with the Resistance, the family she created for herself, the cause that was once the cause of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa (may she rest in peace!) That was a horrible night - the emergency alarms jolting her from a deep sleep, Poe Dameron sprinting down the halls and banging on every door as he wailed the news that the General was dead. Since the funeral, the Resistance's new commander has begun to learn how to better maintain his composure. But Leia was such an inspiring figure, Rey doubts that any successor would have reacted to her demise with less panic and grief. As for herself, Rey doesn't remember much about the funeral. She stood there in a fog, mostly, sealing herself off from everyone who tried to hug her or just offer condolences. Except one person. A person who was not even physically present. But she could feel... floating like a ghost on the edge of her subconscious, like he was standing on the other side of a two-way mirror, or better yet drifting on the other side of a membrane. He could have announced himself more fully if he wanted to, but chose not.

Even if the funeral was for his mother. But he was there. Rey _knows_ he was there.

And what makes Rey the most miserable of all - what will sometimes make her moan and even weep with melancholy, shut up in her room whenever she is not needed for Resistance duties - is that she _wanted_ him there. She still does want him here.

* * *

She is just finishing preparing for bed one night, slipping her nightgown over her head, when a voice that she thinks she would never hear again echoes in her brain and about her, as if coming through a loudspeaker:

"The Last Jedi sure doesn't do much."

Rey spins about and dives for the blaster on her nightstand. Coming up into a fighting stance, she scans the room wildly. But... no one is here. Odd. All the other times they have spoken through the Force Bond, she has seen his person, the essence of him, as if he is standing right there before her. Yet his voice continues to reverberate.

"How is your new little family? Are they everything you ever wanted?"

Rey wants to defiantly say Yes, but that one simple word refuses to form, to come out. Her thoughts are mangled, and she vulnerably lets him read them. "No? I thought not."

Ben sounds almost smug in his interpretation of her situation, which enrages her. Her anger roars into her Force essence like a wildfire being sucked into being, and she blasts out, "Is power everything you ever wanted?"

Unlike her, Ben is more direct, more readily admits the truth. "No."

Rey blinks in surprise, and even though she is staring at nothing, she averts her gaze. He may not be standing before her, but she has been concentrating on a spot on the far wall, as if he was there, imagining him to be there. There is a long, awkward silence, and then Ben's voice washes over her again:

"Why did you leave me?" Why did he have to add that last word there? Why does he sound like a jilted lover, an abandoned puppy? Rey curses her traitorous heart for speeding up in a way it most definitely _should not_ , for melting at the sound of what can only be identified as pain. The pain in his voice.

Yet he asked a fair question, despite how unfairly he may have phrased it, at least to her. He deserves a fair answer, and maybe it will make him think. Rey wants to burst into tears and tell him what is really tearing her heart to pieces, but she is too proud for that. And at the same time, she cannot lie, not totally. So she replies:

"Because I don't want your power. I don't want your protection." And before she can stop herself, she adds quietly, almost whispers it. "All I want is Ben Solo."

She expects him to fly into a rage, shout her down and insist that Ben Solo is dead; that he, Kylo Ren, killed him. _He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him._ But she does not feel the rage surge in his Force identity, the presence in the Force that is flickering all around her. But, no, instead, Rey senses... torment. Agony. Desperation to give in to her demands, yet resignation. And... hopelessness?

"If I could give you that love right now, I would." And he adds an admission of his own, whispering it like it is a curse. Or maybe a prayer. "I am lost without you, Rey."

And suddenly, he is as gone as quickly as he appeared, the Force's energy sucking away like the silencing of the winter wind.

For many hours afterwards, Rey just stands there in her nightgown, speechless. She only briefly ponders if he was present to see her dressing, and the thought oddly makes her cheeks burn. No, what she is more focused on, and troubled by, is the last thing he told her: _If I could give you that love..._

 _That_ love. She had never mentioned love, that she wanted his love. His, or anyone else's. She had merely admitted, in the most damning of ways, that she just wanted him. Ben Solo. All but confessing that she... misses him...

Oh, Force... did he sense that she...? Her thoughts fly forward to Ben's own final confession: _I am lost without you, Rey._

 _Lost? Lost without her?_ Confused and filled with pining despair, Rey collapses onto her bed, her eyes prickling with tears she refuses with all her might to shed, as she falls into a deep sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Forbidden Bliss

**Chapter 2: Forbidden Bliss**

It is more than a week before she senses anything from Ben again. This time, Rey has just retired to her chambers for the night, after a long meeting planning battle strategy. Most of the tactics, she still has trouble understanding, but at least it wasn't a snore. Poe is very enthusiastic, and was certainly in his element this evening. Closing the door, she is just rubbing the fatigue from her eyes when she looks up... and nearly screams.

For there he stands. Full lips, deep brown eyes, those black curls that she just wants to run her fingers... no, stop it.

Rey converts her scream into a gasp before looking about furtively, even though they are very much alone. "What are you _doing_?!" she hisses.

"Hearing your voice isn't enough, Rey. It's bad enough that it haunts my dreams. I have to see you again."

 _He dreams about me?_ Rey thinks, giving away the bewilderment on her face. But most certainly not giving away how her heart strangely alights at his words. And not giving away how sometimes - _sometimes_ \- she dreams about him... She shakes her head to clear it.

"It's _dangerous_!" she stresses, trying and failing to sound angry with him. Actually, a part of her is touched, relieved, wants to actually... _hug_ him... for being so bold just for her. "If the Resistance finds you here..."

"Do you _want_ them to find me here?"

The question catches her off-guard. _Does_ she want her comrades to find him here? Even if she did alert someone, would they be able to see him as clearly as she does now? Finally, she gets out:

"No."

Ben visibly blinks, before the tension in his body deflates with relief. His brown eyes the most earnest she has ever seen them, even more earnest than when he essentially proposed to her on the _Supremacy_ and begged her to rule the galaxy at his side, he announces:

"I'm done with the First Order," and the very timbre of his voice makes it sound as though he has finally been set free. Indeed, Ben Solo actually sounds... _giddy_ at the prospect of abdicating power. "As soon as I can get away, I intend to defect. And I intend to come find you."

Rey clasps a hand to her mouth to stifle the gasp. A soothing warmth begins to build in her chest, building and building like the crest of a wave tickled by sunlight. Her Force essence sings Ben's praises, projecting the pride for him that now fills her head and her heart. He is finally doing it! Embracing the Light. And he's doing it for her. Her! Rey is positively beaming, with astonished joy. Choking back a happy, overwhelmed sob, she knows that standing here will not be enough to address this torrent of emotions. She feels as though her heart will burst if she does not do something drastic.

So she does. With joy and triumphant glee, she throws her arms around him. There is no forethought as her lips descend down on his in a deep kiss.

Oddly, as Ben freezes for only a moment before twining his arms about her and kissing her back almost desperately, Rey only wonders why she didn't think to do this sooner. She did not know that the Force Bond allows her physical contact with Ben beyond just touching hands. But Ben makes that abundantly _clear_ now. Clear by how he parts her lips with his, touches his tongue with her own. Clear by how his hands drift over her hips, then the small of her back, then her waist... then _lower_. Rey shivers as her nerves respond to Ben's hands flying everywhere at once, overcome with... _lust_...

Gripping her by her butt, Ben hoists Rey off her feet, so that she tremblingly has no choice but to fold her legs about his torso. Their lips are springing, dancing, biting at each other now and she moans with ever rare intake of air she is allowed. The disorganized, sloppy way they shed each other's clothing is just as frenzied. Pushing her fingers into his hair, she closes her eyes and presses further against him, forcing Ben to practically fall back onto her bed, taking her with him. Rey shifts awkwardly as she tries to mount him in a comfortable way; she has never done this before. Yet, she is drowning in so much happiness, she cannot feel fear at the gravity of the moment. There is no one in the whole galaxy whom she would rather share this with...

Ben suddenly flips them so that Rey lies beneath, eliciting a muffled squeak of surprise from her. However, in the next instance, she smirks against his insistent mouth, holding back a chuckle. Always the one wanting to be in control...

For someone so battle-hardened and often grating in his personality, Ben has the most gentle hands as he pushes Rey's nightgown up her creamy thighs, past her waist and nearly to her chest. Rey hums and arches into him pleadingly, plaintively, and she is mortified to sense the deluge of liquid pooling at her thighs. She could die with how much she wants him...

And she is astonished to sense just how much Ben wants her. Smiling against her lips, he rubs his hard erection along the inside of her thigh, almost to her center but not quite, and she whimpers in frustration. She tires to seize his bulging member in her fist, but he swats her hand away.

" _Please_ ," she begs for mercy.

She is eternally grateful that Ben is not cruel enough to deny her any longer. Helping Rey cast aside her sopping underwear, Ben is not even tentative or slow about defiling her womanhood; he plunges right into her.

Rey yelps and she clutches him closer, her nails clawing into his bare, rippling back. Force, he is so... big... She adores how full he makes her feel...

Ben begins to thrust into her center, hitting her most sensitive bundle of nerves on the first try. How skilled he must be, and Rey tries not to imagine that he has ever had anyone else like this; entertaining the thought alone makes her nearly weep. It frightens her, how she is already so possessive of him. Ben now picks up the pace, slamming himself into her faster and faster, his grunts letting Rey know that she is pleasuring him as much as he is pleasuring her. The pressure builds and builds and builds, like a dam straining to hold back too much water. Rey's toes curl and her hands move from Ben's back to fist the blankets around her - anything to mitigate the pent-up energy overtaking her petite frame.

"Oh, Ben... Ben..." She is sobbing over how much physical bliss he is bestowing upon her. At the same time, something has to give, and the repeated croonings of his name beg him to release her.

At last, with a cry out, Rey can no longer hold back anymore, and she explodes around Ben's cock, milking it. She convulses with the waves of joy washing over her body and the Force. It is as if she has been bathed, baptized, dunked in the warmest of pools and is only now just emerging.

Moments later, Ben follows, coming into Rey with a grunt. His head flops into the valley of Rey's pebbled breasts and he lies still, sighing with exhaustion and contentment. Gently, Rey kisses his hair and holds him close against her naked form, and the two doze off into a very satisfied sleep.

* * *

It turns out to be just a brief nap, as the moon, high in the sky, now bathes the two Force-users in its light, illuminating how furiously they are kissing. Rey is sitting naked in Ben's lap, gasping and choking on the feel of Ben in her arms, his lips on hers. She can feel his love lilting through the Force like sweet music, and the depth of it nearly rocks her foundation. She wants to cry at the depth of his love for her, and she does. But also her tears fall because she knows the night is waning fast, and morning will soon drive them apart.

And most wicked of all, she has no idea when she will see him again.

Ben finally breaks the kiss. Rey tires to hide her sadness from him, masking her tears as tears of joy. Unlike her, he is jubilant, antsy and anxious to run from the First Order forever.

"As soon as I can, I _will_ send for you!" he vows, and Rey can sense he speaks truly. "Here -" and suddenly, a blaster is summoned into being, as he picks it up from his own chambers. Rey has to sometimes remind herself that technically, the Force Bond makes their corporeal bodies appear in two locations at once. Ben shyly presents the blaster to her, and Rey recognizes the First Order insignia on the handle, along with another mark. The mark of the Supreme Leader. He is giving her his own personal blaster. "Take my gun, for protection. You can return it to me when you are with me at last. Although," and here his eyes glint, "I would just as soon come for you at your Resistance base, even if I had to fight my way in!"

Rey giggles. "Let's pray it won't be long until we are together in every way! Until we meet again, my dear Ben."

Ben beams at how she calls him 'her Ben.' And after a flurry of short, desperate kisses, he disappears from Rey's embrace.

* * *

Across space, aboard the _Finalizer_ , First Order Armitage Hux can hardly believe what he is seeing. A part of him feels like a sexually naive little boy, observing something he shouldn't. The other part of him retains the ambitious persona of a scheming officer, now practically dancing in gleeful victory. Who knew it was possibly to have captured cheap space pornography and high treason all in one reel of security camera footage?

"He's a traitor!" Hux practically cackles to the subordinate technicians who alerted him to this video evidence, though by all rights the incriminating evidence should be leaving him brooding and snarling. "Not only has our Supreme Leader vowed to commit treason, but he is sleeping with the sworn enemy - the Last Jedi! He has gone stark raving mad for her!" He turns to one of his officers. "Tell the Knights of Ren that the Supreme Leader is a clear and present danger to the First Order. Have them stand by and prepare to be recalled to defend our regime!"

And Hux watches the footage of that little Sith-pretending brat fucking that Jedi whore, a maniacal grin growing wider and wider on his face. Here is his chance - his chance to rule the galaxy for a thousand years.

And all thanks to a little sex tape.


	3. Chapter 3: Discovered

**Chapter 3: Discovered**

The morning is clear and still as Rey and Ben redress themselves after yet another session of love-making. Ben adjusts the sleeves of his handsome black robes as Rey pulls a loose-fitting sweater over her head.

Over the past several weeks, the couple has become more and more audacious in when - and where - their Force Bond allows them to meet. The previous evening, Rey had stayed behind in the Resistance command center after a long strategy meeting; it is here that Ben had surprised her, taking her in his arms and kissing her breathless without so much as a hello in greeting. The Supreme Leader had proceeded to take her over the main navigational computers, Rey locking the doors with the Force and begging her lover to be quiet.

Now, the dawn is rising fast, trickles of orange mixing in with the rapidly fading grey. Rey and Ben stand huddled together in a hug neither wants to end, staring at each other's joined hands.

"How can I free myself from the First Order when I can't even move myself from this spot?" Ben agonizes. "If I could defect today, I would do it... just to spend every night after with you." He bends forward to give Rey a sweet kiss. Rey's eyes, heavy with want, flutter shut as their lips meet. The intoxicating taste of his mouth, coupled with his impending departure, makes her whimper.

"When will you leave?" she entreats him, anxious to know.

"Soon, precious. In the next day or two," he promises. He cups her cheek in his hand, Rey's eyes fluttering shut again as she turns her lips inward to kiss his palm.

"I'm frightened," she confesses.

"Trust me, my love. Everything will soon be set right."

Their lips have just touched in one last goodbye kiss when a sudden BANG makes Rey's heart leap in her throat. She turns out of the kiss and nearly dies right then as she sees Poe, Finn and Rose march into the command center.

"All right, everyone, I have just received word of the First Order's approximate position..." The words die in the air around Poe Dameron as he stops short at the sight. Rose gasps in horror and Finn's eyes grow wide. The former stormtrooper looks slightly sick, nauseous even. Poe, meanwhile, betrays an expression rapidly melting from disbelief into defensive rage.

POW! The blaster seems to appear in Poe's hand from thin air, as he fires a red bolt straight at Kylo Ren's chest. But the blaster shot goes right through the Supreme Leader; weaponry has no effect on him while he is in the Bond, as he and Rey both well know. The command center then devolves into people shouting without caring who hears nor even waiting for responses.

"Rey, get away from him!" Rose shrieks.

"What the hell are you doing with him?" Finn demands.

"It's an outrage! It's a blasphemous outrage!" Poe bellows in anger. "She's spying on us! Or he's using her to find our position! He's a monster!"

Rey takes immediate priority (and offense) to Poe's conclusions, as she rushes to make clear, "I have not given him any Resistance secrets! And he has not asked!"

Poe scoffs, his shock and rage shifting towards sarcasm and skepticism at Rey's defense of the perceived enemy. "A likely story!"

"It's true!"

"Rey," and Finn has significantly modulated his voice without losing its earnest and bewilderment. "How could you? Don't you know who he is? He's a monster!"

"He is not a monster!" Rey insists. "He's a decent, loving, passionate man." Almost instinctively, she reaches for Ben's hand and the two of them exchange tender looks.

Poe nearly chokes on his tongue, his eyes popping out of his head at Rey's testament. " _Decent_? _Loving_?" he splutters. "Rey, he's a war criminal! I... I forbid you to speak to him again!"

"And I forbid you to forbid her!" Ben speaks up for the first time. "Who are you to stop the wishes of the Last Jedi? Are you an emperor? A deity?"

Poe gawks at the dark warrior, his face drawing into an affronted sneer. "I am her commanding officer, and I suggest you stay out of this, _Sith Lord_!"

This rubs Ben intensely the wrong way, and he shifts behind Rey as if wanting to make a move on the Resistance leader. Only Rey's hand on his chest stays him. The uproar in the command center calms down just enough for Finn to attempt to steer the conversation in a more... rational direction.

"Rey," he pleads with his friend quietly. "I know Kylo Ren. He's using you. When he gets what he wants, he'll break your heart."

Rey stares at the former stormtrooper in utter disbelief. Do they think she is being manipulated? That she does not know the ways of her own heart? Her lips draw into a tight frown and she shakes her head, refusing to believe it. And not just because she does not believe it. She knows it is not true.

"No. You don't know him. You don't know Ben Solo like I do."

Finn steps closer, just a fraction, his eyes now glued to Ben warily. "How is he here, anyway?"

"He couldn't have snuck in past our defenses; it's impossible!" Poe attempts to sound firm in his theory, even if the tremor in his voice betrays him. Everyone ignores him.

Rey lets out a long, low breath before compelling herself to meet Finn's eyes. "Ben and I share a Force Bond. We can intimately sense each other's thoughts, feelings and even project ourselves so as to give the illusion that we are in each other's presence."

"So... he's really not here?" Finn probes, trying to understand.

"No... and yes. He's here and he isn't here."

"Well, that's helpful," Poe scoffs. Rose actually feels the need to shush him this time.

"We're... a part of each other. Linked," Rey speaks her words carefully, reaching for them, for if truth be told, it is still hard for even her to explain.

"So get rid of the link!" Finn demands.

Rey averts her gaze almost guiltily before saying in a whisper, "I can't."

A slight silence. "Try!" Finn croaks out, blasts out the command after momentarily being at a loss for words.

"What part of _'I can't'_ don't you understand?!" Rey doesn't mean to push back in anger, but the stress of her good friends discovering her paramour is rapidly fraying her emotions. "I don't know how it happened or why. All I know is that after I was captured, the Force smiled down on us in that interrogation room and blessed this union."

Absolutely the wrong way to phrase it. Rey sees Finn's throat constrict, and for one mad moment, she thinks Ben is doing something to him through the Force. The two men do have an employer-employee history, after all, and not a pleasant one at that. But no, Finn just seems thoroughly repulsed and astonished. "You're married to him?!" he practically squeaks. Were the situation not so grave, Rey would laugh at such a ludicrous inference.

"No, I'm not married. The Force just made us soulmates."

"So you ARE married? Through the Force?" Finn tries to confirm.

"No, I'm not married! And that's not how the Force works!" Rey's patience is quickly wearing thin. Not that she should have expected much of any patience in this kind of a scenario.

Finn breathes in deep through his nostrils, the tightness in his facial muscles displaying just how much effort it is taking for him to keep his own anger at bay. Finally, he speaks slowly but forcefully:

"Rey, I don't understand how this... relationship went this far in the first place. But if you care about our friendship and the Resistance's cause, end it now."

Rey deflates, staring at him forlornly. Her eyes fill with tears as his words proceed to tear her very insides apart. "Please don't ask that of me, Finn," she implores her friend. "Please don't make me choose."

"Well, you have to!" And the anger Finn has been trying so hard to repress blasts like a volcano to the surface at last. "Like it or not, you have a choice to make, Rey! Now CHOOSE!"

Rey glances in agony from one man to the other. Choose... how can she? Between the man who saved her from her dreary existence and the man who has stolen her heart? After a suspenseful pause, she finally slides into Ben's embrace, nestling into his chest as his arms encircle her protectively, keeping her eyes on Finn all the while.

"I love him," she whispers plaintively, her voice croaking on the tears now slipping freely down her cheeks.

Rey doesn't know if declaring one's love for the enemy is tantamount to treason. But if it is treason to keep her vow, her vow of love, her vow to save Ben, then so be it. In any event, Poe sure reacts as though such a declaration is treason, as he proceeds to descend further into rage-fueled delusions, desperately trying to justify Rey's actions. "He's twisted her mind! She can't possibly love him!"

And that is the final straw. Rey's face twists into a snarl, besotted with rage and a desire to defend her honor... and Ben's.

"Do you want proof?" she growls. And before Poe or Rose or Finn can say or do anything, she boldly yanks up the loose-fitting sweater, to reveal the bruised and bulging swell of her stomach.


	4. Chapter 4: Coup

**Chapter 4: Coup**

For a long... pregnant moment, the Resistance leaders stare at Rey's ballooning womb in abject disbelief and horror. No one says a word or even dares to breathe.

"There's your proof!" Rey snaps authoritatively.

As usual, Poe is the first one to respond to this startling, scandalous new development, firing out a conclusion with no basis in fact. "He raped her!"

"We made love as consenting adults. He did nothing to me!" Rey pronounces with unusual calm.

"The hell he didn't!" Finn bites back. "It looks like you have a Porg stuffed up your shirt!"

Poe is beginning to visibly twitch; he is absolutely livid. His feet carry him aimlessly, and Rey can almost see the gears turning in his head; he looks almost panicked. He locks the door to the command center with a surprising sense of purpose and Rey shrinks deeper into Ben's arms, afraid for the first time since their discovery how the commander will react.

"No one must ever see this _thing_ you're showing me!" Poe spits, his face contorting more gruesomely with every phrase. "That fetus has fouled the Resistance's good name!" And he jabs an accusing finger at the offending entity.

"My baby's not to blame for what I've done!" Rey blasts strongly, even as she tries not to sob.

Poe does not respond directly as he continues to pace. He regains control of his voice, but only slightly, so that he now sounds more cold than unhinged. "You must decide upon which side you're really on. You _whored_ to make that kid!"

Rey gasps. "That isn't what I did!" and her fingers dig protectively around her abdomen as she perceives Poe boring towards her. "Don't touch my son!" For she has felt his essence in the Force from her womb and knows that it is a boy she carries.

"Keeping that child of his brands the Resistance for life!" Poe's voice is now squeaky in odd places; the unhinged demeanor is back but this time he sounds almost grief-stricken as well. "No alternative - this child and his villainous father... cannot live!" And he pulls his blaster back out.

"NO!" Rey shouts, turning into Ben so that their child is cocooned between their bodies, her arms tightening with determination around her true love. "You will not touch them!"

Poe finally loses whatever semblance of sanity he has left, screeching to the heavens. "He is our enemy! It's him who turns you from us!" And he lunges for the couple, more specifically, Kylo Ren.

"Ben, run!" And as Ben disappears and severs the Force Bond, Rey pulls out the blaster he had given her earlier. Gone are the tears and the pain. Her expression is now cold, calculated and resolved.

Poe laughs cruelly. "Of course you have a gun! And it has the mark of the First Order! Tell me, did he give it to you as a wedding present? Or perhaps it's for the baby shower of your _bastard_ son!" As he speaks, he slashes his blaster at Rey's as if he is carrying another kind of weapon entirely, trying to bat it away. Rey backs up, the pair of Resistance fighters circling each other like wolves, guns trained on each other. "GO ON, SHOOT!" Poe goads, throwing his arms wide, but she doesn't move. "You don't know how to kill!" he jeers.

Oh, but he's wrong about that. So very, very wrong. Rey has killed. Several Praetorian Guards to start, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Even so, Poe turns his back on her and snaps at Finn, "Prepare the X-wings to wipe out the survivors! I am going to end this and fire on the First Order fleet right now!"

He moves towards the computer unit, Rey observing his every motion. Her instinctive need to protect steels her resolve and she calls upon all her powers: _The Force moves where I stand, I feel the turning of the wheel... I feel nothing in my hands, not even the feel of steel..._

Poe is reaching for the button to launch a nuclear attack. _I have no other choice, I will do what I must..._

POW! All at once, Poe's body seizes up in a bizarre rigor mortis. He staggers back a pace, two, as if yanked by an invisible chain; Finn catches his body as he falls. Rose lets out a bloodcurdling scream.

There is a stampede of feet as Lieutenant Connix and a posse of Resistance officers swarm into the command center. "Who fired off a gun?!"

As several soldiers pounce on Rey, with Ben's blaster still in her hand, Finn watches the whole scene sadly. And he takes the mantle of leadership. "As Commander, I hereby place Jedi Knight Rey under court-martialed arrest for high crimes and misdemeanors against the Resistance. Take her away."

* * *

He does well to carefully maintain the chillingly neutral expression on his face, even as he stalks about the _Finalizer_ in a blind panic. He fled from his love while she had a gun trained on her and their unborn child. A gun held by her commanding officer. He isn't ready to leave behind all he has known, he isn't quite ready to disappear. But he doesn't have a choice now.

"Sergeant! Prepare my TIE shuttle!" he barks to a subordinate as he stalks into his throne room, grabbing his lightsaber and any other personal belongings within reach. In minutes, he will be flying out into deep space, hopefully to start a new life with the woman he loves. As soon as he is clear of First Order airspace, he will tell Rey through their Bond where to meet him. Pray to the Maker that she is in a position to do so...

Behind him, there is a HISS as the door to the throne room slides open. Turning, he sees Armitage Hux marching towards him, followed by a cohort of six surprising individuals. The Knights of Ren... Kylo's Knights...

Ben straightens, trying to maintain his composure. "Armitage, what a surprise! And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing my Knights again?"

Hux refuses to smile. Not that Ben has ever seen the man smile before, but he at least expected his features to soften.

"In the name of the First Order..." and the Knights of Ren suddenly ignite their lightsabers. "you're under arrest, Supreme Leader."

Ben tries not to let the fear overtake him. _He knows. He knows I'm going to run. What else does he know? Does he know about... Rey? The baby?_

"Are you threatening me, Armitage?" he snarls, putting on a show of bravado.

"How can I do anything else? Or am I to let a Jedi bitch corrupt our Supreme Leader's loyalties? Have a bit of sexual fancy bring down the greatest Order the galaxy has ever known?"

Ah, so he does know. Well, let it be. Ben wants Rey and no man alive can keep him from her. Ben's face twists into a snarl and he activates his own weapon. "You will not keep us apart!" he roars.

"If you do not come quietly, we will be forced to subdue you."

By _subdue_ , Ben knows that Hux means _kill_. This isn't an intervention. This is a coup de tat - a motion made abundantly clear when Hux presumes to order Ben's own Knights against him. "Take him down!"

The half a dozen knights move forward as one, lightsabers whirring. They may once have been Jedi students apprenticed under Luke Skywalker. They may have the Force. But Ben has enough power to outclass them all. He is the Master of the Knights of Ren... and his brothers-in-arms are about to be painfully reminded why that is so.

The Force becomes a deadly extension of Ben's arm, pulsing and whirring and sputtering along with the crackling blade of his lightsaber. He slashes downward, slicing one Knight in half. Another spin, and he beheads another. A third parries with him briefly before Ben finally Force pushes him down an energy well, just as he did to one of the Praetorian Guards after Snoke's fall.

Thinking of _that_ fight reminds Ben painfully of Rey, and how he secretly wishes she was here, fighting by his side.

The remaining three Knights circle Ben and he swings his lightsaber from one to another and back again, snarling like a cornered animal. When one finally lunges, breaking the stalemate, Ben ducks and plunges the lightsaber through his heart. He side-steps so that the fifth Knight accidentally cuts down the sixth, before Ben finishes off the survivor, dismembering him at the knees before stabbing him through the neck.

Ben glances up just in time to see Hux rushing desperately at him with a blaster. Ben reaches out a hand. Hux is flung back into the throne, its stone knocking him unconscious so that his head lolls to one side.

He should kill the sniveling ginger coward right now. But Ben does not have the energy. He is tired of killing. He just wants to run away from it all, and be with Rey and their baby.

So that's what he does. Ben Solo runs, fleeing the First Order forever. Meanwhile, Hux brands Ben as a traitor and orders a legion of stormtroopers to go after the dark Force-user, cementing his place as the new Supreme Leader.

* * *

 _I am going to Mustafar. Meet me in the Mustafar system. I will be there. I love you._

Rey hears the words of her lover in her mind. He is free from the chains that bind him. He is safe, she presumes. If only she could claim the same. Her hands ghost of her womb where their child lays within.

She is in a dark prison cell, in the bowels of the Resistance base. A simple cot with a worn pillow is her only comfort. A barred window gives her view of the flat snowy ground, but she has to stand on the cot just to peek out. When she is not wishing that she is beyond these bars, she is crying and despairing over her lost love.

A sudden light blinds her as the door to her cell opens. Backlit against the harsh shine is a dark-skinned figure. When the shadows fall away, she can see that it is Finn. _Commander_ Finn. He must be coming to bring her to the military tribunal that will decide her fate. Or maybe the Resistance has decided to just charge her with murder now, execute her and get it over with. So Rey is shocked when Finn strides forward and promptly unlocks her handcuffs and shackles.

"There isn't much time. Follow me."

Warily, hardly daring to breathe, Rey steals after him through the prison corridors and up to above ground. The friends slip out of the base and race across the snowy expanse to the neighboring hanger bay, where the _Millennium Falcon_ faithfully sits amongst a hoard of X-wings.

Rey turns back to Finn, questions and hope going to war in her eyes. Finn just waves her on. "Go. Go after your dream. Go be with him."

Rey's jaw falls open. He is letting her _go_? After she committed murder? High treason? "But why? Why are you helping me?"

Finn stares at her simply, and echoes the words he once told Poe Dameron when he decided to defect from the First Order. "Because it's the right thing to do." Then, he adds: "You saved me once. I am Honor-bound to save you... even if I do not understand your choice, you have made it."

Rey beams, her eyes filling with tears. Besotted with tender caring, sentimentality, she clutches Finn close and kisses his lips, springing back after a moment. Her own boldness prompts her to turn slightly pink, and she mumbles, "Don't tell Rose about that."

Finn just chuckles. "Never." After a moment, the dear friends hug each other tightly.

"Thank you," Rey whispers, her voice breaking.

"May the Force be with you, Rey," Finn blesses her. And he watches as Rey clambers aboard the _Millennium Falcon_ and disappears into space.

* * *

When Rey touches down on Mustafar, she can see Ben running eagerly along the blackened rock towards his father's old freighter. Racing down the ramp, she flings herself into his arms. The constant fear and tension that both have had to maintain for their own survival is relinquished, dissolving into relief that they can only display by sharing a passionate kiss. Relief at being alive. Relief at being together against the wishes of so many.

"What happened to you after I left the Bond?"

"I shot Poe Dameron," Rey reports without a hint of irony.

"You _killed_ your commanding officer? The leader of the Resistance?" and it is hard to tell whether Ben is flabbergasted or impressed. Maybe a little bit of both.

"He was going to blast you out of the sky, and your entire fleet with you! Finn had me arrested, but then he helped me escape."

Ben's brow furrows as he frowns in confusion, but decides there is no point in pressing the matter further. FN-2187 has always been a befuddling mystery to him anyway, and not just because he possesses a strange habit for freeing captured prisoners of war. Ben's fingers now ghost over Rey's tummy. "And the baby...?"

"... is fine." Rey then gives a tiny smile. "He's been waiting to meet his daddy." The little family cuddle together for a brief moment before Rey dares to ask:

"And what happened to you?"

Right away, she knows something is wrong, without even having to consult the Force or the Bond that they share. Ben looks pained and refuses to meet her gaze, as though he is a wayward child afraid of an authority figure's disappointment. At last, he gets out, his voice extraordinarily soft and vulnerable:

"I killed them. I killed them all! My Knights. They knew I was going to defect, and Hux turned them against me. And they didn't even question it, every last one of them ready to destroy me! They're like animals! And I slaughtered them like animals! I HATE THEM!" Hot tears burn his face, and he finds the reaction strange. He has never really had friends, but now that he thinks on it, he supposes that the Knights of Ren were the closest things he had to actually fitting that term.

Rey, meanwhile, stares up into his face, bewildered, her heart shattering for him. _Slaughtered like animals? His own Knights? My Benny killed them all?_ She decides that the best thing Ben needs right now is for her not to pass judgment. To absolve him of his sins and to calm his troubled mind and heart. She wraps him in a tight embrace and lets him cry against her, guiding his hands back to her abdomen and resting her own palms there.

"Come away with me," she whispers into his neck. "Help me raise our child. We can find a beautiful planet with green fields and gentle oceans where no one will ever find us." She feels his thoughts going over the proposal, tentative hope lacing every one. She pulls back to smile softly up at him. "Let the past die, right?"

And for the first time in a long time... she sees Ben Solo smile. A true, genuine, unburdened smile. "All right. On one condition."

"Anything," Rey sighs.

"Will you marry me?"

She gapes at him, speechless. Draws in a sharp breath. At least this is better than his last proposal. And then, after a long moment... Rey bursts into tears and leaps into his embrace.

"Yes, yes! I will, I will!" she sobs, crooning the words like a prayer. Taking his hand, she excitedly begins to pull him back towards the _Falcon_.

"Wait," Ben suddenly considers. "What about your friends in the Resistance?" Despite her now criminal record, maybe Rey has a few sympathetic friends whom she would want there. That Rose gal, and FN-2187. He certainly has no friends whom he could invite to a wedding. And would Rey really be OK with eloping?

But Rey brushes aside his concerns for her, and for the war tearing apart the galaxy, when she laces her fingers through his and sighs, "I guess we won't tell them, will we? Besides," and she blushes as she smiles, "half of them think I'm already married to you anyway."

Ben cannot help it. He laughs.


End file.
